Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — The Laws of Inferno Dynamics

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

Wait a minute. The Darkhold is a book? The bad guy is Uncle Eli? The Book of Eli? Wow, that’s a little weird.

So anyway, in the midseason finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., everything gets tied up, which, in and of itself, is a bit of a feat considering we had a new S.H.I.E.L.D., a new S.H.I.E.L.D. director, rogue agents, an anti-Inhuman agenda sweeping the nation, a Spirit of Vengeance, an artificial intelligence, and a bad guy who could seemingly make something out of nothing. Which, of course, Simmons and especially Fitz refuse to believe because of the laws of thermodynamics. Continue reading →

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Deals with Our Devils

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

This week Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. makes its long-awaited return after a three-week hiatus and—honestly, it’s getting a bit hard to remember why we watch this show other than it’s on TV. That’s not to say that “Deal with Our Devils” was a bad episode, it wasn’t and I don’t think any of this year’s episodes have been actually bad, but now that we’re in the show’s fourth season, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has gotten to the point where you kind of just watch it to watch it. You know what this show is, you know what this show isn’t, you know what this show is probably never going to be but would like to be (i.e., important to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and if you’ve gotten this far with the show, you’re most likely going to stay on this train for as long as the track will last. Continue reading →

The Flash — Killer Frost

The Flash images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

This week brings us the long-awaited Kevin-Smith-directed episode of The Flash, by which I mostly mean “who cares who directed what episode of what show, they all feel the same!!” I just thought you might like to know that since I have such a rare and unrivalled level of ambivalence towards so many things and maybe you don’t feel the same way [about life]. He directed one last year [an episode of The Flash] and he’ll be directing an upcoming episode of Supergirl as well. I think it’s a job he got mostly on the basis of crying. Anyway, it might not matter to you who directs the individual episodes of the TV shows we watch, but I think, for whatever role he may have played in it, Kevin Smith’s “Killer Frost” episode was one of the better episodes of the season. Of course, so far it’s also been the worst season of the entire series. Continue reading →

The Flash — Shade

The Flash images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

So this week the Flash gang faces off against the fearsome new rogue known as the Shade, but really, most of “Shade” was dedicated to catching back up with all of the little subplots that have been building alongside the more major events of the season. Caitlin reveals her Killer Frost powers to the group, or rather Cisco reveals her Killer Frost secret against her wishes, Joe finally goes on a date with Cecilia, Wally’s still having problems with not having any powers, and Barry spills his guts over everything he’s messed up by creating Flashpoint. Also, now Iris wants powers too? And apparently H.R.’s Earth-19 is completely nuts? Continue reading →

Legends of Tomorrow — Compromised

Legends of Tomorrow images courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Distribution

After a first season full (FULL!) of major, foundational missteps, I think Legends of Tomorrow is finally starting to find its level. Which is an entirely different thing than saying Legends of Tomorrow has gotten good, it’s just hasn’t been so strikingly bad lately.

This week, the Legends make their way to the 1980s after their recently developed “time seismograph” warns them of a crisis during the 1987 INF Treaty signing while also explaining why they never travel to a point before the time crises they face in order to preemptively or proactively solve their time-based problems. I think by now most of us who’ve stuck by the show must be far past the point of questioning the internal mechanics of the time travel premise and its seemingly arbitrary rules, but still, it’s nice to see these types of things being addressed every once in a while. Continue reading →

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — The Good Samaritan

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

We’ve now hit the quarter mark of the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and perhaps that’s appropriate with the themes explored in “The Good Samaritan” and the overarching plotlines we’ve seen so far with its latest character, the Ghost Rider. After all, so many of our agents live their lives a quarter-mile at a time. Ride or die. Or whatever, I don’t think any of that has anything to do with anything, but the point is we’ve now hit the point in the season where the game has become clear (or at least translucent) and all of the new heroes and villains of the year, all of those stories told and all of the new developments at S.H.I.E.L.D., that whole slog — it finally got to the point, and that is that the scientist ghosts, bad as they seemed, were all victims of the real big bad… wait for it… Ghost Rider’s uncle…! Continue reading →

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Lockup

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

Every week in these recaps it seems I fail to mention something important that happened in the previous week’s episode, and every time so far it’s been because I have yet to be interested by any of this season’s overarching plots and would much rather just watch the Agents messing about. Last week, we discovered the existence of the Darkhold, a sinister-looking book of dark magic that… I don’t really know, I never really cared about any of that Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze/Midnight Sons era of ’90s comics. I think all we really need to know is that it’s evil, and this week we learned that as much as we can read it, it’s reading us right back. It’s like the abyss that way.

In “Lockup”, the Agents’ plans to spring Ghost Rider’s uncle from jail before the psycho scientist ghosts get him go awry when they, basically, screw everything up because of personal issues. Continue reading →

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. images courtesy of Disney-ABC Domestic Television

So far this season, the reasons I’ve liked Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have all been character-based with some very strong interactions between our favourite agents as they gradually move closer and closer back to the way things were last season. In “Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire”, our prime example of that is seeing Simmons and Daisy team up to take down some Watchdogs and check in on and maybe even recruit last season’s JT “Hellfire” James in a glorious sequence of events that wound up with the Ghost Rider using his hellfire chains. Ah, Ghost Rider and hellfire chains — together again for the first time. Continue reading →